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Language Arts, Volume 91 Number 6, July 2014
T
he broad, yet undeined, emphasis on tech-
nology in the Common Core State Standards
(CCSS) in English Language Arts poses
particular challenges for educators charged with the
Standards’ implementation. The current bare-bones
deinitions of “technology” in the Standards leave
substantial room for interpretation; as we write,
educators and researchers around the country are
exploring and expanding on its potential mean-
ings. Our goal in this column is neither to simply
list what technology looks like in the new Standards
(though we will do that briely), nor to critique the
CCSS for not going nearly far enough (others are
doing this very well, as you will see in the blogs
we have listed in the online resources section of
this column). Rather, it is to map some of the ways
“technology” has been interpreted and emphasized
in CCSS implementation thus far, and then to sug-
gest potential areas for research. To create this map,
we have applied the four resources model (Luke &
Freebody, 1999) to the interpretations of technol-
ogy in the Standards. The model suggests that peo-
ple draw on four distinct resources as they read and
write in the world, and, in order to use the model
to discuss the Common Core, we briely review the
resources here as they relate to technology (Luke &
Freebody, 1999; see also Janks, 2010):
Coding competence: The ability to decode
words, including knowledge of alphabet letters
and sounds, of standard conventions of print,
of keyboard layout and keyboarding, etc.
Pragmatic competence: The ability to use
texts to get things done; for example, to
know and act on the functions of different
texts, including Internet websites and Internet
resources.
Semantic competence: The ability to
make meaning from and with texts; to do
so digitally, in word documents and in
multimedia composition programs.
Critical competence: The ability to critique
and analyze texts, and to redesign new print
and digital texts (sometimes as part of that
critique); the knowledge that texts are never
neutral but always embody particular points
of view.
We engaged in a close reading of the Stan-
dards, looking for each of these competencies. As
we show below, we found technology was most
often visible as pragmatic and semantic competen-
cies. We discuss these perspectives, as well as the
troubling lack of attention to coding and critical
competencies.
A Reading of the Common Core
with the Four Resources Model
Technology (Not) as Coding Competence
If we look closely, we see that some deinitions of
technology in the Common Core State Standards
implicitly demand that students develop coding
competencies. For instance, basic typing is a coding
matter (keyboard knowledge, space bar usage, etc.),
as is the ability to read and navigate Internet web-
sites (how to click, scroll, swipe, etc.). Some of the
important coding competencies of today look dif-
ferent from those of the past (witness the waning of
Research and Policy
A Four Resources Analysis
of Technology in the CCSS
Jessica Zacher Pandya and Maren Aukerman
Copyright © 2014 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved.